Life is a complex maze, a jigsaw of complications. Jakob Jansen was just an ordinary shop keeper, who lived with his wife and had a very attractive assistant. But when his country surrendered to the Germans, his life took a drastic turn. Amsterdam is now firmly under the Nazi jackboot, which leads to Jakob being host to a most unusual collection of lodgers, including: a member of the Dutch Resistance, a British spy, and a rather seductive female German spy. Jakob is forced to operate in secret under the watchful eye of the evil German General, Klaus Schneider, who is famous for his cruel and vindictive nature (but also his weakness for the ladies). With unlikely friendships and unlikely enemies, not everyone is who they appear to be...

In September 1940, nearly 400,000 children were evacuated from London, followed by many more from other cities in the UK. Many of them were unaccompanied, and for most it was the first time away from home and their parents. Yet this well-known disruption of childhood was a drop in the ocean compared to the effect of conflict on children throughout the world. Children have always been the victims of war, and this fascinating new history examines the effects of conflict on Russian war children during the Leningrad Siege, children in Germany during the Holocaust, and the children in more recent conflicts in West Africa, among many others. Taking first-hand accounts from survivors, diaries, and authentic war documents, this eye-opening history reflects the untold story of hundreds of thousands of children whose lives were effected by the horrors of war. It covers children in the U.K. and overseas, including Germany and the influence of the Hitler Youth, the movement of Finnish children to Sweden, children of the Leningrad Siege, Dutch collaborators, Vietnam War, and present-day West Africa. It also uses first-hand accounts and diaries.